[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 4, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H2494]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 20, 2004, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, we teach our children that promises 
matter. And they do. So what kind of message does it send to our 
children when the President promises to leave no child behind but then 
breaks that promise by failing to provide our children the resources 
they need to get a world class education.
  The fact is the President's budget cuts education funding by $9.4 
billion. That is $9.4 billion less than the President himself said we 
needed to leave no child behind. So the only standard we are holding 
the President to is the standards he himself agreed to in his own 
education bill.
  If that is not a broken promise, I do not know what is. Of course, 
$9.4 billion is just a dollar figure. But to the children who do not 
and will not get the resources they need, it is much more than that; 
2.4 million children will not get the help with math and reading they 
need; 1.3 million children will not have access to after-school 
activities, but will instead be sitting at home or out in the street 
without supervision.
  Other children will be denied enrollment in Head Start because the 
President froze its funding. And tens of thousands of students will 
lose the grant work studies or loans they need to pay for college. 
These are the human costs of President Bush's broken promises on 
education.
  He promised to leave no child behind, but then turns around and 
leaves millions of children behind. What kind of priorities are these?
  We Democrats want to do what we all agreed, Democrats and Republicans 
alike, is the right thing for our children: Investing the resources to 
raise student achievements in core subjects like reading and math; 
demanding results and accountability from our schools; making sure our 
students have up-to-date textbooks and technology; providing after-
school programs for every child that needs them; ensuring access to 
Head Start; increasing financial aid to college students and 
simplifying the application process and forms; increasing the maximum 
Pell grant; doubling the HOPE Scholarship and making the HOPE tax 
credit refundable; expanding assistance to minority-serving 
institutions.
  I know these things are really important because I began my career in 
public service as a high school student. I did not care for the 
education I received in my public school. I might have been young, but 
I knew that was not right. So I fought to change that. I won a seat on 
the school board and won the funding so that every student who would 
attend that school would have a quality education.
  What we do here makes a difference in the lives of students. I know. 
The promises we make here matter in the lives of children. I know. And 
the level of our commitment to education will, in many ways, determine 
our success as a Nation in the years ahead.
  I believe in opportunity, in personal responsibility. But without 
providing a quality education to our students, we will not have those 
things. And if America is going to compete in the global marketplace of 
the jobs and commerce and technology of the future, we need a workforce 
that receives the best education available, not one taught on a 
shoestring budget.
  Today there are students learning in trailers, in outdated buildings, 
literally falling apart, with leaky roofs and without adequate heat, 
using outdated textbooks and crowded schools where teachers have to pay 
for supplies out of their own salaries. We can do much better than 
that.
  America cannot and should not settle for second or third best when it 
comes to educating our children. To do so, we need to make the 
investment now. Unfortunately, President Bush and the Republicans made 
promises but we are failing to keep them. We Democrats want to make 
sure all the children in our Nation get the world class education they 
deserve. If you give us that chance, we will deliver that promise.

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